Comic-Con ’16: The Agony and the Ecstasy
Hello guys and gals! Long time no see, huh? I can’t quite say I’m back because I don’t know if I can commit to my return (ironic, given the name of this blog) but I’ve really missed you all and wanted to share some moments from last week’s Comic-Con! Special thanks to Ruth for convincing me to do a post. My schedule is crazy sometimes but I will try to make the time to write something here every now and then. I’ve missed this community a lot, as well as writing about movies. Apologies in advance for the upcoming terrible-quality videos. Most of these were taken from afar and with a shitty phone!
I still haven’t gotten the chance to purchase actual tickets to San Diego Comic-Con International. I’ve been attending for about four or five years (not consecutive) but always as a volunteer and this year was no exception. Luckily, I got a pre-convention assignment on Tuesday (the actual work took about 20 minutes, if you can believe it) and in exchange got a “free day” at the Con. I picked Saturday, which is known as the best day at the convention. And yeah, I had a hell of a day (in the best way).
I didn’t get to attend any of the panels (Marvel, DC, Fantastic Beasts, Kong: Skull Island, etc.) because the line to get into the legendary Hall H at the San Diego Convention Center was insane. A friend stood there for more than 7 hours! The payoff must’ve been sweet but, as that popular video says, “ain’t nobody got time for that!”
Every year the Con gets bigger (in every way) but you know what’s gotten smaller? The freebies. Still, I got a wonderful Spock shirt (only for convention volunteers), a Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them oversize bag (I’ll tell you later about a tragedy involving that bag) and a pretty cool (cardboard) Captain America shield!
Even with no Hall H, I still had a damn good day at SDCC. I got the chance to catch a glimpse of Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther, Get On Up) at the Marvel booth, while at DC I snuck in a few (awful) pictures of Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and Connie Nielsen (from the upcoming Wonder Woman).
Ran into a barefoot Thomas Jane (Punisher, Hung) on the convention floor and took a pic with him. Became a full-sized action figure behind the Captain America shield and also saw real-life couple Ben McKenzie (The OC) and Morena Baccarin (Deadpool) from FOX’s Gotham, as well as the handsome Tom Ellis (Lucifer).
Oh, and I almost forgot, also ran into the delicious Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy, Pacific Rim) promoting the upcoming King Arthur by himself.
Just before exiting the Con at about 2 p.m. to head to the Spreckels Theatre, we noticed a huge crowd at the DC booth. Who was there? The cast of Suicide Squad! I’m not a fan of Will Smith, but I was excited to see him a few yards from where I was standing. I was also left in awe of Jared Leto, one of my absolute favorite actors. In the video you can also see glimpses of Viola Davis, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Cara Delevingne, Scott Eastwood, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Karen Fukuhara, Adam Beach, Jay Hernández and Jai Courtney.
Why did we leave the convention center at 2? We had tickets to a special taping of Conan. Guess who were the guests? The cast of Suicide Squad! Despite the lines and the sweltering heat both inside and outside the theater, the taping was an absolute blast. (You can watch the full episode here.) Every person in the audience got a limited-edition Funko Pop figure of Conan dressed as the Joker from Suicide Squad as well as a ticket to watch the film in IMAX 3D (so looking forward to that!)
I was tired as hell, hot, sweaty, hungry and parched but I’d had a fantastic day at Comic-Con. However, a sad moment closed off the evening. After having dinner with my friend Alexandra (we were on the other side of the border by then), I noticed something was missing from my bag. I immediately knew what had happened. Just as I was getting in Alexa’s car after the Con, one of the straps from my bag broke because of the weight, and it fell on the ground. I thought nothing had fallen out of the bag, so I picked it up and put it in the car. But guess what did fall out? That’s right: my limited-edition Funko-Conan-Joker doll. Oh well.
So that was my experience at San Diego Comic-Con 2016. What do you think about my good/bad luck? Did you visit the Con this year? What are your favorite memories of SDCC? Tell me in the comments!
This is so awesome Fernando! Great recap man, I felt like I was there y’know, living vicariously through you! That’s cool that you got a free day from volunteering, man I wish I lived close by then we can certainly do it together. I personally would rather roam the convention center like you than having to wait in line to get into Hall H! I’ve done that once in 2011 but we only had to be in line for like 2 hrs tops, and I got pretty great seats too close to the mic where I was mere inches away from Andrew Garfield!
I had no idea Ben McKenzie and Morena Baccarin are dating, wow! Tom Ellis is gorgeous but not interested in his show. Ooooh Charlie! I’d love to have said hello to him, he’s a pretty sexy dude. Oh no! Sorry to hear you lost your Funko-Conan-Joker doll, but man you must have sooo much stuff that your bag broke!
Thanks for blogging about this, hope you’ll do a blog post once in a while. Even once a month would be great man. Cheers my friend!
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Glad you liked it, Ruth! Thanks for being so supportive. Oh, I would love to experience Comic-Con with you. Volunteering is great because it gets you in but not having to report to someone and managing your own time is even better, so I hope I can buy a badge next year.
Yeah, not very interested in Tom’s show either but he’s definitely good-looking! And yeah, Hunnam looked great. There was no fanfare surrounding his appearance at the Con so I could’ve missed him if I hadn’t walked by.
I wish my bad would’ve been full of freebies or souvenirs but actually what was so heavy was my bag of personal stuff (which I put inside), since I spent the night at a friend’s house in Chula Vista (one time I couldn’t get to my shift on timw because the line to cross was insane, so I didn’t want that happening again).
And yeah, definitely going to try to get back in the blogging groove. Getting new notifications from this post brought back that excitement!
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I wish one day I could volunteer w/ you Fernando, but it’s kinda tough being that I live so far away 😦
That’s crazy that there’s no fanfare surrounding his appearance, I guess he’s not as well-known compared to those Marvel stars. But that makes me like him more, I always like actors who aren’t super famous. I bet when Sam Riley was at SDCC last year he could’ve walked around the convention hall without disguise and nobody would recognize him!
Well maybe next year you should bring a sturdier bag, ahah. That’s so cool that you got to experience so much in just one day!
YAY about blogging, I sure hope you would do it somewhat regularly. Maybe do a weekend roundup type post so you can talk about a bunch of things (movies) in a single post? In any case, glad to have you back!
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Yeah, maybe next year I will let you know when they open registration for volunteers and you could apply. They usually let you know if you’ve been selected a few months in advance, so there’s time to plan a trip if needed.
And yes, I will definitely try to bring a sturdier bag next year, haha! Don’t wanna lose anything else!
And thanks for the tip, a round-up type post would definitely work for me.
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Thanks Fernando, though I’m not sure I could fly to SD around SDCC given I have other travel plans next year. But I hope you are going and that you’ll have even more fun! Ok then, hope you will start blogging again, tweet me when you have a post up 🙂
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I will! Thanks for everything 😀
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Thank YOU for posting this, so much awesomeness! I LOVE your big smile in the photos, your enthusiasm is infectious 🙂
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I’ve always been a very smiley person, fortunately 😀
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Sounds like a great time! A friend of mine and his wife went this year and had a blast too.
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I’d say that was mostly good luck! Thanks for sharing. I definitely would not have stood in that crazy line either! Lots of the footage was on youtube the next day anyway. Plus you saw plenty of cool stuff. And good on you for volunteering!
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Thanks a lot, Jay! Yeah, the good vastly outweighed the bad and I had a fantastic time 🙂
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Wow, Comic Con looks amazing Fernando.
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It is! Hope you get to enjoy it someday! 🙂
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I hope so too.
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Nice to see you back even if it’s only briefly!
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♡
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You might have missed this post of mine, which talks about an important subject. https://vinnieh.wordpress.com/2016/08/15/check-your-balls/
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